The Greening of Gavin

Buy Nothing New Month – Final Update

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As the month draws to a close, let’s have a look at how it has been going so far.

Purchases to date;

  • Second Hand – Soap making gear for workshop; including a spoon, chopping board, pot, jugs, etc.
  • Second Hand – Clothing; a belt.
  • Second Hand – I bought an iPad 2 for Kim from my youngest daughter Megan. She no longer needed it, so I took it off her hands.
  • Swapped – Stick blender from L @ 500m2 for a gift!
  • New – Today I broke the drought, and purchased something new for hygiene purposes. I bought a new apron for tomorrow’s cheese making course. We could have made one, but ran out of time. I managed to pick it up for $16, so it did not break the bank, and was the only item I bought all month brand new.
  • New – Oh, I also bought a few more kit beer cans and some light malt, so I can make some more Aztec Gold Cerveza over the weekend. As it falls under the food and drink category, it was an allowable purchase, and even more so that I am making the beer myself. The batch I bottled a few weeks ago is just so drinkable, that when shared with friends, it won’t last too long!
So with only a few days left in October, I think I have done pretty well. I am not normally a big purchaser of new stuff anyway, and prefer to source what I can from stuff I already have or swap things with friends for something I need or make it from raw materials myself.

Just by my observations at the factory outlet today, where I bought the apron, I could tell that not many people are giving second hand much of a chance. There were shoppers laden with bags as they walked out of the shopping centre. I felt abnormal with just an apron in my hand (no bag required) as I travelled back to work.

This challenge has also had an effect upon Kim and Ben, who joined me on the quest for second hand. We found all sorts of wonderful things in the op shops that we visited, some useful, some not. However, we did not stray from our list, which is always a good method that we use to avoid impulse buying.

I might even take another visit to our local op shop on Sunday. You never know what I might find. I do need a new pair of dress jeans, which is how I bought my last pair two years ago.

How did you go during Buy Nothing New Month? Did you give it a go? What was your result?

I Love Opportunity Shops

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Today, I went hunting for stuff.  Not new stuff, but second hand stuff.

As part of Buy Nothing New Month one of the objectives is that if you really need stuff, then you go looking for preloved items.

I needed a few things for the soap-making workshop that I am holding for the Melton Sustainable Living Group next weekend, so as part of my pledge, I avoided the major shopping centres and hit the road.

This quaint little op shop is located in Melton South, and is run by the Uniting Church.  Quite a bit of furniture and lots of cloths.  I picked up a brand new brown belt for my pants for $2.  All leather as well.

Then on to Vinnies in Melton to see what they had.  I picked up two plastic jugs here for $4.

Next door was the Salvos, which is the biggest op shop in town.  I found a chopping board, two plastic bowls, some stainless steel spoons, and a stainless steel avocado cutter.  When I first picked up the cutter, I didn’t know what it was, but a nice lady told me that she used to work in a sandwich shop and used it to cut avocado, strawberries, and bananas.  Nice, and for only $1.

So here is a photo of all my booty, which only cost me $20 all up.  Me thinks I got myself a bargain, and feel good giving this stuff a second life.

I am now on the lookout for a stainless steel 4 litre pot and I am set for the workshop!  I will keep looking around, and will hit some garage sales tomorrow.

To date this has been my only purchase all month, other than food, drink and personal hygiene items.  Doing well and I am nearly halfway through the month.

How are you going?  Have you managed to buy only second hand or borrowed stuff this month?

Second Hand as Our Default Setting

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When I was a wee lad growing up in Loxton North, South Australia, we lived on a dairy farm. Our humble farm house was furnished with mainly second hand furniture because that was how it was done back then in the 70’s.

Gavin (left) and James in Loxton North

I remember that the bunk bed I shared with my brother Jim was purchased at an auction, as were most of the other furnishings. Lots of kitchenware was passed down, as were our kitchen table and chairs. Even my chemistry set was bought at an auction. Many of these auctions were deceased estates or farmers selling up. They were a treasure trove of goodies for an eagle eyed man like my Dad.

In fact, just about everything had a second life and things were built to last!

Back then, people used to share stuff as well. If you didn’t own a certain tool that you needed for a once off job, more often than not you could borrow one from a neighbour and friend. There was no hyper-individualism like there is today.

With designed obsolescence, and cheaply manufactured crap, those days of hand-me-downs and borrowing have all but faded into history. This makes an event like Buy Nothing New Month difficult for the average bloke.

I have been thinking a lot about Buy Nothing New Month since I pledged to take up the challenge. It soon became evident to me that our Con$umer Kulture is so out of kilter with the basic premise of this challenge, that to be successful I would have to reshape my default setting of buying new stuff, to one of buying, borrowing, sharing second hand stuff instead.

This leads me to the conclusion that to make this work permanently, I would have to make buying second hand my default setting, and revert to the ways of my parents and grandparents. This is not a bad thing by any means. It is just a different way of thinking. Instead of buying from, say Target or Kmart, I make my first stop second hand instead.

So far my challenge has been on track, and I haven’t bought anything so far, but I know that will change soon. I do have an ample supply of beer that will be ready in two weeks, so I am okay there. It is just that Kim and I are planning to teach soap making workshops soon, and need to source a stick blender and a digital kitchen scale.

We will put an ad out on our local Freecycle, but I am not holding my breath. I will also scour the op shops and secondhand stores we have in our town, so maybe we will come up trumps there. We could also ask friends if we can borrow these items, but I am after a more permanent solution, as we plan to teach these courses at least once a quarter.

I could buy these items under the ‘personal hygiene’ part of the challenge as we are making soap after all, but I would feel that I had cheated a little.

Fingers crossed, we will get lucky. I am very excited about what I may discover around town.  I may also discover something of my past as well!

I am now ready for my default setting to be reset. How about you?